Jakarta – Ongen Latuihamalo, one of the key witnesses in the murder case of Munir Said Thalib, has confirmed that he saw Munir on his September 2004 flight to the Netherlands but denied being an acquaintance of the rights activist.

Addressing a media conference here Wednesday, Ongen said that he saw Munir with a man at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe during a transit in Changi Airport, Singapore, prior to continuing the flight to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

He declined to confirm that the man he was talking about was Garuda Pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto. "I saw Munir with a man... but I did not know who the man was." Police suspect that the coffee bar was where Munir was poisoned.

Ongen said he initially did not know that it was Munir that was sitting at the cafe, although he said he thought his face was familiar.

"I only knew that he was Munir upon the airplane's arrival at Sciphol Airport, when Dutch police held all of the flight passengers for a while for an inspection," he said. "And I knew about (Munir's) death from a Garuda staffer," said Ongen, referring to an employee named Yosef Riri Mase.

A lawyer for Ongen, Ozhak Sihotang, said at the conference that his client went to the bar for a cup of hot tea because he was not feeling well.

Pollycarpus, an off-duty Garuda Indonesia pilot who was on the same flight with Munir from Jakarta to Singapore, was originally believed to have been involved in Munir's murder.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Central Jakarta District Court in December 2005, but the Supreme Court later overruled the verdict and sentenced him instead to two years in prison for forging an assignment letter to be an aviation security officer, signed several days after the murder.

Ongen said that he was shocked to hear of Munir's death because he had seen him during the flight. Ongen also denied allegations in the media that he was a "political thug" and a drug dealer. "Ongen is a musician who sings a lot of religious songs. He went to the Netherlands to promote his new album," said Ozhak.

Ozhak also said that Ongen recently went to the Netherlands after he had been questioned by the Indonesian police from Apr. 3 to 4. Ongen returned to Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Apr. 20, where two police officers brought him to the National Police headquarters.

The police had questioned Ongen as a witness for the first time on March 30 this year. The police questioned him again upon his return from the Netherlands on May 16.

Ozhak said that Ongen was currently working as a singer at a number of churches here. The lawyer added that he had sent a letter to police headquarters saying that Ongen no longer needed police protection.

Ongen said that he felt this was a heavy burden for him, adding that the truth would finally be revealed. "How unfortunate it was for me to be named as a suspect just because I was there at the (crime) scene," he said.